In the field of beverage and liquid systems an apparatus, commonly known as a bag-in-box package, is used to store and dispense beverages such as soft drinks, fruit juices, water, or alcohol, but not limited thereto. Typically such bag-in-box packages comprise a collapsible bag or bladder disposed within a cardboard or plastic box. The bag has a spout for filling the bag with liquid and the spout protrudes through a side wall of the box for dispensing the liquid from the bag.
One of the problems associated with such bag-in-box packaging is that the bag collapses upon itself as the liquid is withdrawn, which tends to create pockets of liquid that are isolated from the spout or tap and cannot be withdrawn from the lower portion of the bag. Another drawback with bag and box packaging or containers is that the tap or spout needs to be supported within in one of the side walls of the box and this results in an accumulation of the liquid in the area of the box below the level of the tap or spout. Thus the residual portion of liquid remaining in the bag is wasted. It is cumbersome and awkward for a user to open the nearly empty box, remove the bag and to squeeze the remaining fluid out from the box. This problem is amplified by the fact that when a bag and box container is placed inside the dispenser the residual liquid cannot be squeezed dry by a user and results in wastage of the beverage or liquid.
This results in fluid being either thrown out or being manually squeezed out of the box, after the liquid has ceased dispensing and the bag has been removed from the protective box and the box has been removed from the dispenser. For example, from tests carried out a typical 10 liter box had 1.3 liters of beverage or liquid left inside the bag by the time the dispense flow rate had turned into a trickle or almost non-existent trickle.
Numerous solutions have been disclosed to solve the above mentioned problems. European Patent Publication number EP 1 520 836, in the name of Model AG, discloses a bag-in-box dispensing apparatus in which the box is tilted at an angle to the dispensing apparatus to urge the liquid from the bag and box through a tap or spout. However this solution has been shown to be unsatisfactory.
Another solution is proposed by US Patent Publication Number US 2003/0155372, in the name of Yorn et al, discloses a bag-in-box apparatus where the interior bottom of the surface of the box is preferably sloped or terraced downwards towards the spout of the bag such that gravity helps the liquid towards the spout, as shown in FIG. 1 by the dotted lines. However it has been found that this bag-in-box apparatus still results in waste liquid forming at the base of the box. In addition the box manufacturing costs are substantially increased to accommodate a slope in the box.
Heretofore, no satisfactory solution has been proposed to overcome the above mentioned problems.